Red on Red on Red
by hausofbraus
Summary: Basically zombies run amok and Mikasa has her hands full. The Annie/Hanji is just background.


**Basically zombies run amok and Mikasa has her hands full.**

It was a common occurrence now to see bodies littering the street. Far more common to see them rise once more, in the earliest stages of decomposition, and amble off to whatever prey they desired most.

It appeared to be humans.

No one knew why, only that humans were at the top of the grocery list for all of the undead. Demand was high and, only two weeks in, supply seemed to be running low, very, very quickly.

The crunch of a blunt object striking what sounded like an over ripe pumpkin filled the air. A tall figure stood tense, clutching a metal bat with bits of gore slipping off the end. Each chunk hit the concrete with a sickening finality.

Mikasa forced herself to look away from the limp, mutilated form before her, and struggled to hold back the bile surging into her throat. She wrapped the crimson scarf from her neck tight around her face. Breathing her own body odor was favorable to the smell of death and rot lingering in the damp, early evening air.

"Hey, we should get going," a dull, quiet voice sounded behind her.

She bit back her panic, and turned to see her best friend, Annie. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun, ice blue eyes carefully avoiding the ground.

"Did you find anything useful?" Mikasa brushed a lock of her raven hair from her eyes. Her pale hands shook, though her voice did not.

It had started when she and Annie were in their last class of the day. Seniors at Maria High, their enthusiasm was at a new low. It seemed to dwell between war prisoner and Satan's asshole. As Mr. Shadis droned on in his monotonous voice, they passed notes. Nothing was written on the folded sheet of paper. They were simply competing to see who would be caught first.

Things had been a competition between them ever since elementary school when they tried to swing higher than the other and Annie broke her arm. They were always seen with the same group of people, but had never actually spoken until late middle school when Mikasa and Annie beat up a group of boys who tried to bully them. They bonded over idiots and it worked for as long as they had known each other.

As Mikasa was about the flick the note over to Annie for what she had counted as the 34th time, a scream echoed through the halls. She and the blonde glanced at each other, silently expressing their confusion. Another scream that faded into a loud gurgle resonated. At this point Mr. Shadis paused his lecture to open the door and bellow obscenities at the noise makers.

Before he could even begin his first expletive, jaws linked to an impossibly deformed head clamped on his throat. The class watched for a moment in shock as the large man attempted to break free. Mikasa stood first with Annie and hurled herself onto the attacker. The broken teeth ripped out the flesh they had been holding as the both rolled to the floor. She kept her arms locked around its torso as it struggled to attack her. It smelled of rot and decay, and it's flesh felt too loose to still be in place. Mikasa glanced over its shoulder to Annie, and faltered, stunned by the look of horror dawning on the blonde's face.

Apparently that moment of hesitation was too much of an opening. The figure in her momentarily loosened grasp ripped out of her arms and lunged back at her. She landed on her back with it on top of her. Her forearm pushed back on it's throat, keeping the snapping jaws mere inches from her face. Red, frothy drool dribbled onto her skin as she struggled to maintain the distance. Her strength was waning, but the creature seemed to have an unlimited supply. It continued to snap its teeth in an attempt to latch onto her pale flesh. Its flayed hands pressed on her throat, effectively cutting her supply of oxygen. She felt black creeping into her vision and the screams of the class sounded muffled to her ears. A wet thud sounded above her and the creature went limp, falling off of her.

Above her, Annie stood with one of the student's baseball bats covered in blood and brain and bits of skull. The blonde held a determined look, though her skin was paler than usual. She took Mikasa's larger hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Her voice cracked.

Mikasa was shaking with the adrenaline coursing through her body. From head to toe she performed a mental examination. Her neck hurt from the force of being choked. Blood covered her shirt, but she already knew it wasn't hers. Her ears were ringing after her head hit the ground on the tackle. Through the frothy drool on her face and neck, she could feel no bites. A slight burn from a scratch under her right eye was the only true injury she could account for.

"I'm fine. Just shaken up." The blonde nodded at her faintly in response.

The entire class was in a panic now. Everyone was speaking in loud panicked voices about what to do and what happened. Shadis lie still on the floor, his throat torn out and glazed eyes wide open. A few people were throwing around the theory of a government experiment gone wrong. Others were sobbing under their desks. Some even sat in place, shock taking over.

Mikasa hurried over to the door and peered out the window. The hall was chaos. People were being brought down, only to come right back up in a few moments. Gore was splattered on the halls with each silenced scream.

She grimaced and walked over to Annie to speak in a low whisper, "We need to find Eren and Armin and get out of the school. I don't know what's going on, but I think we need to move fast."

Sea-blue eyes regarded her quietly as Annie quickly assessed the plan, "Right, I'll call the police and let them know. If you can buy me some time I want to call Hanji and tell her to meet us somewhere."

Hanji, Annie's eccentric scientist of a girlfriend, went to Harvard to become a Zoologist. It was only a few miles away, but anything could happen in this situation. Mikasa nodded to her, understanding her need to be with the one she cared about.

As Annie made her calls Mikasa turned to the class, "Everyone, listen." She barely had to raise her voice. Her speaking at all was abnormal enough to make them shut up, "Grab a weapon and group up, we need to leave," She paused as they continued to stare, wide eyed, "Now," Her firm voice prompted them to movement then.

They managed to grab Eren and Armin before finally escaping the school and clambering into Hanji's van. Very few of the original thirty had survived the run through the school's property.

Two weeks later, and here they were, numbers even fewer. Mikasa still felt the phantom horror of that day.

Now, Annie gave her a silent nod before turning to rush back to their hide out. They had taken over an abandoned warehouse called Maria in what used to be the least populated part of the city. Although there were still stragglers, it was as good as they could hope for at the present. Mikasa kept a tight grip on her bat as she hurried after Annie, keeping as silent as possible.

They managed to avoid the few undead that loitered near their base and quickly climbed the fire escape on the side of the building. Annie knocked quietly on the grimy window before a woman with messy brown hair and round glasses slid it open and ushered them inside.

She wrapped her arms around Annie tightly and mumbled what were probably words of thanks that she managed to make it back. Her bright brown eyes locked on Mikasa's own dark gray and she smiled quickly pulling her into her own tight hug.

"Anything interesting happen out there?" The tall woman spoke quietly, so as not to wake the two boys fitfully resting the corner together.

"Mikasa took down two of them while I looted," Annie's voice was devoid of emotion, but there were dark circles under her pale blue eyes.

Mikasa nodded an affirmative, "They weren't as big as the other ones I've seen this week, but they were faster."

Hanji nodded and pulled out the worn pad of paper and nub of a pencil she always carried, jotting down the data. She had always been the one to keep track of these things since it began. It seemed like there were some mutations to certain corpses. Some would become stronger and larger than when they were turned, and others would lack as much strength, but used speed and agility to take down prey. No one knew why yet, but they were sure Hanji would find out somehow.

"What did you end up finding?" Mikasa gestured to the army rucksack Annie was carrying.

The blonde knelt to the floor as she rummaged through the bag, "I managed to get some canned fruit and some soup," She pulled said items out of the bag, "That should last us through this week, we could even have a little more than usual. Also, at the gas station we stopped at, I grabbed some supplies, " She lifted out a large first aid kit, "Plus I got some duct tape and batteries."

"It's unbelievable that you can carry all that," Hanji grinned, kneeling next to the short girl.

"One time she picked me up and carried me up a ladder just to throw me from the roof to the pool," Mikasa let her smile leak into her voice. Sharing these memories now was the happiness they all needed to make it through the day.

Annie snorted and flicked her light blonde hair out of her face, "I told you I would if you didn't stop talking about my height."

Mikasa shrugged and Hanji's grin turned mischievous, "You are pretty short though. I mean I'm pretty sure I studied monkeys taller than you."

"Honestly, Hanji I'm going to throw you outside if you don't shut up."

The tall brunette raised her hands in a 'don't shoot' gesture. Mikasa stood to leave the two of them alone, stating that he would keep watch first tonight.

She pulled her scarf tighter around herself and crawled out on the fire escape to the roof, bat in tow. All the buildings were relatively close together, but all she needed to do was try to make anything wandering nearby stay away. If she threw a rock from the roof in the direction that it came from, usually it would turn and follow the noise away.

She sat, leaning against the chimney and looked up at the sky. It was a clear night. No clouds, or even noise, defiled the darkness. Every time she looked there seemed to be more and more stars that she could see. A light wind rustled her dark hair as she watched the peace above. Her deep gray eyes widened as she saw a brief flash of a comet in the sky. After a moment of battling with her inner child and losing, she closed her eyes for a moment and thought of something to wish for.

_I wish the world would get better. _

Quick and to the point, much like herself. Satisfied with her request, she opened her eyes and felt her heart nearly stop with what she saw on the roof top across from her.

They were separated by the drop between buildings, but Mikasa stood slowly, taking her bat with her. Milky white eyes surrounded by peeling skin seemed to pin point her exactly. It stumbled forward with a snuffling grunt. Mikasa nearly sighed with relief when she realized it wasn't an abnormal, when, just as it seemed to stumble, it broke into a sprint.

Mikasa cursed under her breath and raised her bat, readying herself to fight. Another, louder curse flowed from her lips when she saw a second one run out from behind a pile of bricks and follow the other. If she hadn't had such an exhausting day, she wouldn't have doubted herself at all. Except she _had_ experienced an exhausting day and she _was _doubting herself. Two abnormals at once would be a challenge.

They simultaneously jumped the gap between buildings and, after one broke a leg, continued toward her with ravenous growls. The broken leg one lunged first. Its head connected with her bat and burst open like a ripe tomato. The one left took her attack on the first as an opening and hurled forward. Mikasa swung again, just barely nicking the head. It collided with her body and threw them both to the rocky roof. She felt a sharp rock dig into her back, and she winced in pain. The bat was lodged between her and the beast trying savagely to tear her open. She noticed this one had sharper teeth and they came in rows, similar to a shark.

With all her might she shoved the bat against the creature's sternum, and was rewarded with a sickening crack as the bone broke. It didn't seem to notice, even when the bone began to tear through the skin. It was single mindedly chomping above Mikasa's face, desperate for a taste of flesh.

It reminded her of her first encounter. She had been in the same position before and had nearly died. She continued to push, urging herself forward.

_If I die I lose and I can't fight. I have to live, I have to keep fighting._

The struggle was growing more and more one sided and after two minutes she was covered in sweat and blood that was a mix of her own and the zombie's. She noticed how its jaws were even closer to her face than before. The smell of rot coming from it was making it hard not to scream. She held back each noise, knowing that it would only attract more.

Suddenly, there was a dull thunk and the creature fell to the side, once again lifeless. Mikasa raised herself to sitting and stared at the corpse next to her disbelieving. An arrow with red feathers on the end was driven straight through its temple. She turned quickly at the crunch of gravel under foot.

In front of her was a frowning girl, with her chestnut hair pulled into a ponytail. A quiver of arrows was slung over her shoulder and she wore knee high leather boots that looked as if they had been through more hell than the owner. She held a long bow in one hand and offered the other to Mikasa with a smile. Amber eyes held no threat.

"Hi," She took Mikasa's hand and helped her to her feet, still smiling, "My name is Sasha."


End file.
